Johnny Reb fell to pieces
In light of the state government of SC getting its crap together enough to take a very simple, very basic action - an action you wouldn't think would be so difficult - to remove a flag that does not represent the state from its state capitol grounds, I wanted to share with this community something that happened not too long ago and not too far away regarding a confederate monument that had stood over a small North Carolina town square for over 100 years.
It all started with a drowsy driver on his way to deliver auto parts at 4:30 in the morning.
Mark Anthony Vincent didn't mean to, and he felt bad about it afterward, but that fateful morning in May of 2011 he fell asleep at the wheel and crasahed his delivery van into the 32-foot granite base of a Confederate Soldier Monument in the middle of the Reidsville, NC downtown round-about. The impact caused the 6-foot marble soldier atop the base to topple over, and break apart into many pieces. The head of the soldier reportedly broke through the van's hood and crushed the engine. Luckily, Mark Vincent was okay, but there was no way that particular rebel soldier was going to make it back atop any pedestal.
As you might imagine, the incident presented a problem to be solved - what should now be put in the middle of that downtown round-about? Should they put a new statue of a confederate soldier in there to replace the one that had first been placed there in 1910? Should they put some other type of feature in there? Who owned that statue anyway?
As it turned out, the statue was placed there and still belonged to the North Carolina chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. They had an active insurance policy on it, so they collected over $100,000 allowing them to replace the statue. But they didn't want to put it back on the round-about, which was city property. They wanted to put it on their own property, where they could be more certain no ill fate would find it.
The mayor of Reidsville was pleased with the United Daughter's decision. A white mayor of a town that's more than 40% Black, he thought it would send the wrong message to put a new confederate soldier on the downtown round-about. (Did you see that coming?)
But of course it couldn't end there. No. Of course there was a group who wanted to have the new statue put right back where the old one had been, to restore the honor of the confederate soldiers who died defending their homes. The Sons of Confederate Veterans joined forces with the Reidsville Historic Preservation Action Committee and organized protests and even filed suit to have the new soldier statue replaced in the round-about.
They lost their suit. And their appeal. On every point they raised.
The city of Reidsville and the United Daughters came to an agreement that the new statue would be placed near the actual graves of confederate soldiers in the city cemetery. And there it stands today, surprisingly appropriate.
New Confederate Soldier Monument in Greenview Cemetery
All of this happened with a fair amount of
local media attention, and the
Wall Street Journal did run a story about it, but mostly, it was sorted out away from the media circus that I, at least, have come to loathe.
Granted, there was a conspiracy theory that Mr. Vincent had broken the statue on purpose (because he was African-American). And granted, there was a group of people who just wanted to keep things the same as they had always been, regardless of the message that would send to minorities and to businesses. And yes, there was an FBI investigation of some vandalism against a local African-American businessman who had spoken out strongly at city council meetings against replacing the statue as it had been. So yes, racism did raise its ugly head in this incident. But the people of a small town in North Carolina did the right thing even without a media circus.
It doesn't mean that racism isn't still a factor in North Carolina. It is. Especially in small towns and rural areas. And some of the problems our society faces, particularly the criminal justice system and the criminalization of medical conditions (addictions) still seem intractable. But maybe when we come together with a sincere interest is solving a problem, maybe we really will find a common sense solution.
And after some special committee meetings, a call for artists, a winnowing down of applicants, and four artist interviews, Reidsville chose a Greensboro, NC artist to create a new 15- to 18-foot sculpture for the round-about, which is scheduled to be installed at the end of this year. The artist said he came up with the design by incorporating art deco motifs that can be seen in some of the older buildings in downtown Reidsville.
Model of Reidsville's new round-about sculpture